Judd Apatow reunites ‘Freaks and Geeks’ cast

James Franco, Busy Philipps, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen have reunited with the cast of their cult TV show “Freaks and Geeks” for the first time since the series went off the air in 2000.

The comedy, about a group of small-town high school misfits, was axed after just 12 episodes were broadcast, but it subsequently gained a huge fan following and several members of the cast went on to find fame in Hollywood.

The actors have now re-grouped along with co-stars Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley and Jason Schwartzman in a photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine, which was guest edited by the series’ writer-producer Judd Apatow.

The stars posed in a gym for the school-inspired spread and, in an accompanying feature, Apatow opened up about casting undiscovered talents and chatted to the cast about their memories of filming.

Recalling his decision to hire Franco, Apatow admits, “We didn’t think of him as handsome. We thought his mouth was too big for his face and he seemed perfect to be a small-town cool guy who wasn’t as cool as he thought he was. When all the women in our office started talking about how gorgeous he was, me and (creator Paul) Feig started laughing because we just didn’t see it.”

Daley also recalls, “Franco went to Michigan for two weeks to get into character, and we were joking that he lived under an overpass for a few nights. He was always the one that had a (Albert) Camus novel, heavily dog-eared, and his car was so full of junk that it looked like he lived out of it.”